This morning, I fished a nickel out of Audrey’s mouth. When I asked the kids who left it on the floor, because it certainly wasn’t me (I never use cash. Sad, but true,) Mae and Luca both looked down at their knees and Luca responded with, “By accident.”

There are days when I’m so thankful I have a background in nursing. I swear, I think I would be a far less competent mother without it. Of course, I can handle any run of the mill scrape to the knee and a fall down the stairs, but once, there was a time when Luca choked on a grape. He came up to me, while I was sitting on the floor with Mae, and he was wide eyed, making absolutely no sound and was swinging his arms around.

Oh, and he was blue.

I quick grabbed him, flipped him over, smacked his back, and out popped the grape. He walked off as if nothing happened.

I sat there and tried not to sob.

Point being, if I hadn’t been through a code or two, I probably would have lost my shit and had freaked out until he passed out, then fished it out. Either way, he didn’t die, I stayed calm and that’s that.

Nurse power.

Not twenty minutes ago, Luca came downstairs from his quiet time early. I gave him the look that says, what are you doing, sir? He looked at his feet. It’s not like him to just come downstairs and not ask for something right away – be it a hug, snack or water. I asked him what he needed and he said, “A Lego got up my nose by accident.”

I took a quick look, didn’t see anything, but then again, it’s a nose and it’s dark, so when I pressed lightly, he said, “Ow!” and then began to whimper.

Calmly, I led him upstairs to my bathroom, sat on the counter and invited him to sit on my lap. I pulled his head back so it was resting on my chest and tweezed them out in a matter of seconds.

He asked for the Lego back, and after a quick rinse, he was on his way.

Boys don’t need a reason to put things in places they don’t belong. Which reminds me of a story…
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my younger brother came up to me, all panicky, and told me he got a marble stuck up his butt. He said he was just kind of rolling it around, the it went right up there. (Like I said, there is no reason for what little boys do.) He didn’t know what to do, but didn’t want to tell Mom.

I told him to go get on the toilet and make like he had to go. In he went, and in short order, I heard a “plink!” Problem solved. Maybe I should have went into medicine too.

BWHAHAHA! Sorry, but I can so picture that scenario playing out in my house. I don’t know where M learned the phrased “it was a accident”, but he uses it a lot: when he kicks his sisters, spills his cereal, or jumps on my couch. It’s all accidents. No doubt I’ll be fishing Legos out of his nose soon.

That seems to be a worldwide phenomenon! I once was babysitting the two kids of a family from Namibia, and the older one always used to say “it was an accident” after kicking/hitting/pinching (you name it) the younger one – with a serious facial expression and being offended when I did not believe her…
Glad you were able to solve those grape and Lego incidences! What a horror to see a child blue in the face not being able to breathe!